Autistic brothers find their place in the pool on Wissahickon swim team

WISSAHICKON — Every day Daniel Haggerty, 17, and his brother, Will, 15, wake up for school and go through their morning routine. They make their beds, shower, get dressed, Dan makes lunches for himself and his brother, they pack their gym bags for swim practice and catch the bus to Wissahickon High School. From there they head to class and socialize with their friends during the day, then hit the pool for the next three hours for practice. During their down time, they’re doing homework, working toward an allowance from their parents, watching movies or spending time with friends.

To anyone who’s never met these two brothers, they might think they are average teenagers making their way through high school.

But one thing that separates these two boys from most is the fact that they each have autism, and getting to this level of normalcy has been a journey rather than a race.

Their parents, Susan and Tom, said the credit for this achievement lies in the hands of boys varsity swim coach John High and Lisa Hacking, teacher assistant and assistant swim coach autistic support, who’ve worked tirelessly to make it happen.

Susan said her boys have been fans of swimming ever since they were little. The two of them, along with Tom, would spend close to seven hours in the ocean at a time when they would take trips to Avalon in the summer. They also loved to swim in their grandmother’s pool.

About four years ago, they enrolled in the Plymouth Whitemarsh Special Olympics swim team where they swam from October through April for an hour once a week. She said the boys loved the team and their coach at PW could tell they were getting much more skilled in their strokes and improving as swimmers over the season.

When Will enrolled in a summer school program for children with autism called Extended School Year at the middle school, he began working with High, and the two got to know each other pretty well. Susan said High began talking to the autistic support teacher, Gillian Torrence, to see if they could join the swim team when they got to the high school. There was interest in the idea and when Dan moved up to the high school, he joined the track team. He had already been working with Hacking for a few years by that point inside the classroom, and after joining the team, Hacking helped him as an assistant coach.

When Will made it to the high school the following year, High approached Hacking to see if she would work with the boys when they joined the team. After all the proper paperwork was filled out and everyone was on board with the idea, the brothers officially began swimming for the Trojans.

High said they practiced every day with the team, starting out slowly with easier, modified versions of the drills the rest of the team would do. While some of the team might do four laps, the boys might only be required to do two laps of a particular stroke until they became stronger swimmers.

Hacking would take the instructions High would give to the team and help the boys to better understand them.

Many of the strokes require complex motor skill combinations with the arms and legs, which would be broken down for the boys to master, Hacking said. Things like diving off of the blocks into the water involve proper technique, so High would explain what he was looking for and Hacking would help them understand.

“Working with her has been a huge help,” High said. “She does so much to make sure these guys are ready. She gets instructions home to their parents (and) gets them ready for swim meets.”

“I’ve been a swim parent for many, many years,” Hacking said. “My youngest swimmer is now in college. So I know a little bit about the sport, and the events, and training and all of that stuff, what it takes to be a champion swimmer. So I get to wear my parent hat, wear my coach hat, my teacher hat and know what the guys need to motivate them.”

Hacking had nothing but kind remarks about working with High.

“We really work well together because he understands special needs kids,” she said. “He understands what gets them working.”

High said he advocated from day one that the brothers be allowed to compete during swim meets.

“We put together a relay and the entire season we watched their times drop,” High said. “They swam more and more laps every day at practice. It’s just really inspiring.”

He said during meets they swim with their teammates at the same standard with no difference in scoring or timing.

“It’s like a sixth sense for them when they’re in the water,” he said. “They’re actually very good in the water. They look comfortable in the water, and the great thing about them is they’re great listeners.”

As each boy makes his way down the final lap of a race during a meet, the team and crowd watching erupts in applause as if they were each Michael Phelps going for another gold medal. Dan and Will come out of the water looking like champions.

The feeling of accomplishment hasn’t been lost on the boys either.

Hacking added that every time Dan finishes a race, he gets out of the pool and shouts, “I won, I won!” She said research has shown that feeling of accomplishment refires the neurons in the brain and produces positive results overall.

“It’s really good to have that feeling,” she said. “I don’t think he’s ever had that feeling before in his life.”

She said Will enjoys the team for a much different reason.

“His favorite thing about swimming is the girls,” she said. “So we have to coach him to keep his head in the game.”

Susan said the positive effects on the boys don’t stop once they get out of the pool.

She said they’re eating healthier, getting in better shape, sleeping without resorting to the use of melatonin, socializing in class and making friends on the team, including team captain Greg Beyer.

“The team itself has just embraced these boys,” Hacking said.

Beyer said working with the boys has been a positive experience and the boys both look up to him as their leader.

“Will, he’s always telling me he wants to be captain like me when he’s older, which is really heartwarming,” he said. “Swimming with them was phenomenal. They made the season so much fun.”

The accomplishment by High and Hacking hasn’t gone unnoticed by those around the district either.

Both Kelly Heim-McClusky, district director of student services, and high school Principal Lynn Fields both gave high marks to each for the job well done.

“It’s just been a real positive situation,” said Fields.

High said the boys now swim a couple thousand yards in the pool during practices just like the rest of the team but to them it’s not work — it’s play time.

A lot of times Hacking said she will “just pull back and let them have fun.”